Tag Archives: Shelter Renters Campaign

A short one this time. We’re staying another year, things will be tighter, but it’s the right thing for us right now. At least, I think that’s what’s happening – I’m blogging into the night trying to make a bit of money (let’s call it job #2) – no money is forthcoming just yet though. Shaun is having to work late into the night as H has been unwell (ear infection in both ears). I’m selling things on ebay to make space as we declutter with a possible view to downsizing.

But it’s okay – we got a voting slip yesterday – asking whether or not we want Residents Parking here, a contentious subject as we have H’s school and a college who use our parking spaces, occasionally blocking us residents in.

Except. We can’t vote. Apparently private tenants don’t count. The five years we’ve lived here mean we don’t have a say.

How bizarre. Apparently our landlady can vote though, even though she hasn’t been back here for at least seven years.

Weird logic. At least it isn’t something important! But how bizarre that as long-term residents our opinion doesn’t count.

The landlady has offered £50 less per month as the lowest she can go. She is remortgaging, so using money from where we live to buy herself a house. Which you might say ‘fair enough’ to, but we’re also cursing.

We’ve had replies back from two local councillors as I’d emailed them asking what their policy would be for people like us who privately rent. Oh, and I also asked they don’t slag off any other party, as this election has got terribly boring with them all doing that.

The LibDems and the Tories are both in agreement more houses need building to bring overall rents down. While I would agree with that, I’m not exactly sure where more houses *could* be built in Carshalton unless we start building on parks which is never going to happen. There is a new development up the road, apartments for families they call it – five four bedroomed houses (luxury apartments it says) – over half a million each. There is another house on the road adjacent to ours. EXCEPT THESE PRICES ARE RIDICULOUS!!!! The chances of a first time buyer buying a two bedroomed cottage around here these days are non-existent. Instead we pay £1400 a month in rent. Two bed too small? Three bedroomed ones are now over half a million. Insane. It doesn’t help that the pictures all look like something from The Sims, but there’s no cheat to give you a few million extra pounds in real life.

So actually, I’d say more affordable housing needs to exist. Oh, and Tories, stop selling off old council houses as you’re not helping much at all, and never have. Tory man was helpful, but said ultimately that he doesn’t agree with rent controls because “they never work well” and “often result in unscrupulous landlords breaking the rules, and they also dissuade legitimate developers and investors building more properties because they fear they won’t be able to get their hoped-for return”

Mr LibDem said things which feel more appropriate to us. We’re in a marginal seat and he needs us to vote for him. He does confirm that successive governments have shunned the idea of rent capping, preferring to see a competitive private rented sector, and that governments have avoided rent caps as countries who have it had the amount of rented accommodation decreased. He agrees the long term solution is to build more affordable homes, of which the Lib Dem’s have a plan to – building 300,000 every year. I’m not entirely sure where they would be built in Carshalton, but that’s just a minor issue. Right?

Ms Labour has not yet replied, and I feel like their policies may be the ones which speak to us the clearest. I really want Ms Labour to reply and she really needs my vote. She also needs a better website. But she doesn’t want to close the local Children’s Centres whereas Mr Lib Dem does.

Right now, in Carshalton the rents are sky-high. As 40-something renters we’re already having our chances of a mortgage being put in jeopardy (according to a headline in the Metro which says 40-somethings can’t get them any more), but with the rents being so high we can’t save to buy.

There’s only one option left – a part buy, part let house of our own. Two came into my inbox this morning. One may be being built on a section of land where buildings were destroyed in the riots in Croydon, the other in a more residential area (yes I will be spending the night in Google Maps). The latter looks appealing. If we could get a mortgage for £100,000 (age permitting) we could get a share in a two bedroomed flat – losing outside space, but gaining ownership of something.

I really hate London.

** edited to add – I’ve done a few ‘who should I vote for’ polls of late, and everything says my views are Green with Labour coming a close second. So I feel in the interests of fairness I need to send an email to our local Green councillor.

I’ve never owned a house. I’ve never felt the need to own a house, and maybe that’s the problem. I say this, as every few years there is a problem.

For the last two houses, the landlord has decided to sell their house. This effectively meant we were homeless and needing to find a new place to live.

House 1 was a nightmare. On the day we were getting the keys we turned up at the letting agents to be told “oh, is it happening today?!” and then being told we weren’t going to be getting the keys. So we drove back to New Cross (in tears) to then get a call saying they now had the keys, and the reason we couldn’t move in was due to a lack of gas and electricity safety checks but it was okay as we could move in now and they’d do them later instead. A year or so later after this the landlord told us he couldn’t afford to keep the flat and had decided to sell. The Estate Agents who were selling the flat would turn up at any time with a viewing, without confirming beforehand someone was coming, and would be terribly apologetic about it (yeah, right) before doing it again the following day. One time I was in bed. They’re meant to give 24 hours notice, minimum. Our landlord aggressively argued back with us his place would never sell as we required too much notice. Sometimes the Estate Agents couldn’t do the viewing so they’d ask us to. By then too scared about losing our home (and feeling extremely bullied) we would do it, and funnily enough the people viewing never made an offer. Maybe it was the noise from the downstairs neighbours. They were usually noisy around 3am in the morning. Loud and noisy. We were quite glad to get away from there anyway, our settee wouldn’t fit in the living room so we had to keep it in our bedroom.

House 2 was lovely. The move in was a dream, regular text messsages from the letting agents keeping us posted with what was going on. It was the most wonderful reassuring house move I’ve ever experienced. It was the home we brought H to when she was born, a lovely small garden and a stable door at the back, a cottage. It was lovely. Our biggest problem was next door. Their arguments; “if you’re seein’ ‘er I’m going to CUT YOUR DICK OFF” she screamed one night at 1am on their weekly tiff. We would turn off the tv and listen, as we didn’t want to disturb the new baby on the other side by turning up the tv even more to drown them out. They’d drink even more, smoke even more, argue a bit more and the fumes would then work their way through the floorboards into our house before they retired for some passionate, noisy rumpy pumpy. Pleasant. So when our landlady told us she was selling we were sad as the house was lovely, but happy to be leaving the soap opera next door. The smoke would go through the floorboards into our bedroom and H’s room and was crap. So in some ways it did us a favour. (we took up the floorboards and put lots of filler in to get rid of the smoke and H was never in danger) The noisy smoky neighbours sold up and moved on a couple of months after us. Typical.

House 3 is this one, the one we’ve been living in for five years. In that time the only thing I truly dislike about this place is our heating system as it’s two vents – one upstairs and one downstairs. H has this heating at her school. You sometimes get warm from it. When this has been mentioned to the letting agents they brush it off. We’ve been provided with heaters as well! (this is one additional plug in heater, it has to be said, we bought one for H’s room as she has the coldest room in the house) We have space here and it’s lovely having space. We’re also in the perfect location for H’s school as we’re over the road from it.

And.

We’ve just had our annual notice of our rent increase. It has just gone up by £280. £1300 a month. This is the market value around here. Market this, market that, market whatever – does that really count that for five years we’ve had low rises per year (and we’ve had a rise every year) and yet this year we’ve got a 27.5% increase. So how do you raise £280? Fortunately we have no debts. So what’s next? Do we stay and get skint or downsize and save? I understand having a rise to keep up with what’s available locally, but I’d love to know who is responsible for deciding that £280 extra a month is a reasonable amount to ask.

The letter says if we can’t agree, we can hand in our two months notice. Not quite so bluntly, but that’s what it says.

I’ve spoken to Shelter who say we don’t have to sign. This could mean we get served notice by the landlord, it’s a risk. So what do we do next? Who knows. All I know is renting can be a pain in the arse, and this is a prime example of it. When you’re told what happens next and it’s a like it or lump it decision. We lump it, there are no houses available for rent around here. We’d need to leave the area, take H out of school and find somewhere affordable. It doesn’t feel right doing that in what will be her last year of Primary School. I know landlords don’t care about our priorities, they just want their mortgage paid, and if the landlady was in difficulties with money we’d be the last people to know as it’s none of our business. But still.

I’ve emailed all our local politicians to find out what policies they would put in place if someone gets a massive rent increase like we have (purely out of curiosity, I don’t expect them to be able to help us). We’re not the first people to go through this, and we won’t be the last.

The problem though, is when things happen like this and I kick myself for not buying a flat when I first moved to London when they cost £30,000. I was earning £9,000 a year then with next to no savings, but you could get 100% mortgages then.

We rent, and I’m content with this. We have the flexibility to move within a certain amount of time which is handy too as and when we decide to emigrate. This is not directed at you, but some of it does apply.

You know what I hate, Landlord? I hate when a rent is increased because that’s what everyone else does. Because you’re charging it to keep well in with what everyone else charges. I know, I know, it’s a business. You have no intention of selling.

Well, you say that.. but our last two landlords who had ‘no intention of selling’ did that. It can really mess up your living arrangements when it’s forced on you, especially if you weren’t aware when you moved in. There’s nothing more irritating than finding out you’re only going to live there until the landlord sells (and I have plenty of horror stories – shortest stay due to this – 2 months, longest stay – 4 months and visits from abusive estate agents who would turn up unannounced letting themselves into my home without notice as they had a key)

Then I read a news article today about shops near Bolton which are empty, vacated by the people who owned them but they’re still in contract so the big chains keep paying their rent even though it’s empty. Local businesses who are forced to move can’t do it because they can’t match the prices you’ve been charging companies who can.

How about our local high street here? Or up the road? Landlords bumping up rents for businesses which forces them to close or move elsewhere – they don’t look at it and see a local community which people use – they just see it as somewhere their pockets are lined, probably over the odds if they’re a big chain. Our local butchers and grocers have both been forced out due to rent increases in the last six months – in their place are a new grocers and on the horizon a Costa Coffee – on our high street which already has three popular coffee shops.

It makes you happy though doesn’t it landlord? A property which probably costs you next to nothing with a rent which is way over the odds.

Which brings me back to the place I live. We both work – we both work as we have to – to send H to nursery I need to work four days a week. Soon those four days will go up to five though my days will be shorter as she starts school. We don’t have enough money to buy, but then again we don’t want to buy – or at least I don’t. I’d happily live somewhere and make it my home – we’ve got all our own furniture bar the dishwasher and washing machine so what difference does it really make? It’s all just walls and carpets. We’re lucky, we can make that choice.

These aren’t problems for us, we’re lucky – a lot of people aren’t. Shelter are campaigning at the moment to help out tenants who have crappy landlords, ones who don’t declare where their deposits are placed (which is illegal), some who don’t get their deposits back. There’s help out there. There’s also a lot of crappy places to rent out there. They’re pushing into local councils to get support against rogue landlords (and I can see that Sutton Council aren’t listed) – there’s so much to read and it’s worthy of your support. Please head there.

This isn’t a sponsored post, I needed to mouth off about landlords. I’ve probably barely started.